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The Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011, signed into law last May by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, cost the state more than $340 million dollars and more than 3,000 jobs, despite assurances from Deal that eliminating illegal labor would create 11,000 new jobs.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued last June to stop the law. On June 27, 2011, a judge granted a stay on two of the most onerous provisions: “Show me your papers” (requiring any suspected illegal to present documentation) and a provision that made it a felony to knowingly transport an illegal alien.

The “Show me your papers” provision was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta Monday. The provision that would make it a felony to knowingly transport an illegal alien will remain on hold.

Charles Hall, executive director, Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, discussed ramifications of this law as part of a panel on immigration reform during the Texas Produce Association annual conference in San Antonio.

He said that the effect the court’s decision will have on Georgia agriculture and other industries remains to be seen, but told the Texas Produce Association that if the law were upheld the state could be in trouble.

“We are going to have to wait and see what the reaction is with our migrant harvest crew community,” Hall told Farm Press. “I have not read the decision yet, so I don’t know the specifics, but I did hear that the person has to be involved in some criminal activity to have papers requested.”

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This article, coupled with your previous article concerning the benifits of trade with Mexico, reveal that you do not see the big picture. All of the problems associated with illegal immigration far exceed the value of cheap labor. I have lived in south Texas my entire life while working in agriculture for over 40 years. We need to fully mechanize harvesting and make other adjustments as necessary but the open border policy is about to take this nation down. Close the border now! I have had it with the drugs, violence, crime and the overwhelming takedown of our schools and healthcare. Use the military if necessary and start deporting the 40 million illegals here now. Ron, you are misguided in your biased reporting.

I agree with Texasred 100%. People outside of Texas and the other border states have no idea how bad it has become. I can not stop and check my crops without locking my pickup for fear of an illegal jumping in it and driving off. Overdramatic, some might say but it is the world we live in currently. Border Patrol will do very little to help anymore and the aggression of illegals is frightening at times.

Aldrete commented that "we are seeing a migration back to Mexico", if that is the case I would love to know where they are starting from because it sure isn't my part of the US. The north and eastern half of the US do not have a clue what happens when the population swings to a demographic that doesn't understand english and will not learn english. It will break the school systems and our children are the ones who pay first.
Everyone needs to realize this problem will not solve itself. If our government will not take the first steps to curb illegal immegration then we are lost.

Fruits and vegetable can always be harvested. They may not be at the price we choose or desire but in the long run it is by far better than the cost of losing our identity.

As a fourth generation Californian who started picking oranges at the age of five on my grandfathers farm(we call it an Orange Ranch), I can tell you factually, illegal aliens have destroyed this country. They vote, they don't have the same cultural values, they only want the money they can make here (at the same time driving wages down for the rest of us) while destroying the environment here. Farming is a family business and if you can't automate or do it yourself maybe another American can grow the additional product and pick with the labor provided by his neighbor's or family or the price will go up until another American will grow the product.
Real wages have been declining since(adjusted for inflation) 1972. The reason is illegal and legal immigration. Geoge Tanimura, one of the largest vegetable growers in the country told me he and his brothers were making a dollar an hour in 1947 to hoe lettuce in the Watsonville California area. That is better than 26 dollars an hour now. You figure it out.

We run a farm too and have had trouble getting labor in the past. Now that unemployment benefits are running out, we are seeing a lot more interest in jobs on the farm. I would suggest that there would be a lot more domestic labor if they couldn't sit on their duff watching TV and sucking up my tax dollars (more correctly borrowed Chinese money) instead of working. We actually had a man working for us part time and when we assigned him a job he didn't like he said he was going home for the day since he was losing almost as much in unemployment benefits by working.

I bet Georgia has a lot more than 11,000 people on the unemployment rolls that would be working if they didn't have 2 years of benefits.

You have to realize who is paying Ron's salary and then you will understand what he writes. When unemployment is at ZERO I will be okay with imported workers. If you are getting one red penny from the govt that didn't come from your contributions to social security or medicare, no more free bennies. We have got to teach these people a work ethic. Either they work or they don't eat. I have reached the point that I don't care if a lot of these people live in a ditch. There are way too many jobs being filled by border crossers. I know of so many good honest hard workers from Mexico that are here working, but they don't give a flying flip about the United States. They have no loyalty to our country. They are here for one thing, money. There are too many criminals that are getting through with the hard workers for this to be acceptable any longer. It's time to defend the border now. No exceptions.